Author: Anisha Rayudu

Top 10 Room Decorations of 2020

2020; the worst year of my life. Maybe that’s just me but I know last year has taken a huge poll on all of our lives and the lockdown stage made us do some things we probably regret now. Some of us dyed/cut our hair while others tried learning how to skate which resulted in a broken arm. I personally had a mental breakdown at 2 in the morning and cut off 8 inches of my hair, but that’s a story for another time. There were a few people that knew how to cope in a healthy way though! Some of them baked, made music or decorated their room. We’re going to take a look at the top 10 room decorations of 2020 because it helped lots of teens express themselves in a productive way during the most boring months of the year. 

  1. Plants

There are so many different types of plants you can put in your room to add a pop of color. They’re perfect to match any neutral color that you may have on your walls or bed and are super pretty. Most people who put plants in their room have an assortment of different types but in order to keep them, you have to be really careful and responsible. They need to be under sunlight and be watered regularly, this decoration piece is definitely not for me considering I can’t even keep my room clean or my bed made. 

  1. Mirrors

I’d say mirrors are pretty casual, I mean who doesn’t have a mirror in their room? But I’m not talking about the normal mirror on top of dressers or the full length mirror in the corner of everyone’s room. There’s lots of different patterns in mirrors that are super cute like in the picture above. This has become popular this year especially since it started trending on tik tok. It’s not something most people have because not everyone likes the aesthetic that it fits, but it’s definitely super popular. 

  1. Posters

Posters have always been good room decorations but lately I feel like everyone’s putting posters of their favorite shows, movies, bands and artists up. You can find posters on almost anything/anyone. Whether you’re a teen girl crushing over Harry Styles or a teen boy obsessed with the Fight Club, there’s a poster for it. 

  1. Fake vines

Sales for fake vines have skyrocketed this year since it’s also blown up on tik tok. They’re easy to match with most neutral colors just like normal plants but they’re a little more popular since they don’t need to be taken care of. They’re also sold with lights that come attached so some people will get those to brighten up their room. They look great in closets, above beds or over desks.

  1. Tapestry

Tapestries started trending the most at the beginning of this year and they’re still very popular right now. Most girls would get the mandala tapestries because of their pretty designs and they came in hundreds of styles and colors to match the theme of their room. Nowadays, teens are buying tapestries with their favorite artist or characters from shows on them. 

  1. Paintings

Hand drawn paintings have been super popular lately. Since everyone’s bored in quarantine and finds that they don’t have a lot to do, one of the hobbies they’ve picked up is painting. Some teens like to paint things themselves and hang the canvas up in their room and some teens like to buy the paintings online on websites like etsy. The paintings can be of any colors and will most match rooms no matter what so they’re very popular amongst boys and girls. 

  1. Records

Records are such a cool wall decoration and they’re not very popular but this is definitely one of my favorites. Although I don’t have them in my room, I think they’d look super cool for most people. Usually the people who have these in their room are really fascinated with music and have good taste in it too. They’re not hard to find and you can buy packs of these to decorate your room with and are definitely worth it since you can find multiple sizes and different genres. 

  1. Picture Wall

Picture walls are very common but they’re still such a great decoration and let me explain why. Even though everyone has them, they all have their own version of it. Some people like to take pictures off of pinterest or google and some people like to color coordinate where they go. You can put them in different shapes on your wall or you can put them around your mirror. You can print them out in black and white, get them printed at a nearby store or even take the pictures on polaroids. These pictures can be random, they can be your friends or they can be a mix of both. There’s such a large variety of things you can do with photos so it’s very high on my list. 

  1. Projector

Projectors aren’t exactly decorations but I had to include it since it could be used as one.  They’re so easy to use, portable so you can always change where to put it and where you want the display and helpful in many different ways. For example, if you don’t have a tv in your room, displaying movies or shows can be helpful to take some stress off your eyes and it can help you have multiple screens if you’re doing schoolwork and feel like you need another monitor/screen. 

  1. Led Lights

At number one we have the famous led lights that have been trending literally everywhere. Even though they’re super popular and not the most unique, they are super cool and everyone loves them. They add a pop of color to your room and are so much fun to have on especially at night because it feels like your whole room is glowing. You can put them under your bed, across your walls or ceilings or really anywhere they’ll stick. They’re the perfect decoration if you’re looking for more in your room but don’t have space on your walls. 

Rayudu-Oral History Assignment

From smart to smarter; a fighter’s journey

The maid started screaming and yelling, throwing things all over the floor and causing a scene. My great grandfather yelled back trying to get her to stop but she quickly pulled out a knife from the kitchen and started to attack him, swinging and stabbing. He tried to calm her down and solve their argument but there was nothing he could do, she stabbed him at once and left him laying on the kitchen floor. At least that’s how I picture it happening… 

In the early 1900’s my great grandfather had been through hell and back, fighting for his education, his family and friends, his business and his life. He had grown up with a hateful teacher who would give him awful grades because of his envy that his own son was not as smart as him. After a couple years of failure in school he decided that he couldn’t study where he was anymore and set out to do something else in life. Back in those days, lots of citizens in India would set out on a journey to Burma so once he arrived, he immediately got a job in a business to make money. He did not want to be an employee forever though, he had some great ideas he wanted to put to use so he started his own business, who would’ve known this would land him in prison. 

When my great grandfather had started his own business, his former boss had gotten so angry he left his company that he planted weapons on him and then reported him to the police. He was jailed and while his friends tried to get him out, there was not much they could do but finally, after a month of investigating, they found he was falsely accused and arrested his boss instead. Although his boss had put him through all of this, he still took pity on him and sent home cooked meals into prison so he could eat like he used to. His  friends and even the cops were confused on why he did this instead of seeking revenge but he had a good heart and didn’t want to fight back.  

After everything had blown over, he had settled down and kept working on his business, making it more and more successful. He had a maid who would cook and clean for him while he worked but 2 years later she started to rebel and would stop cleaning for reasons we still don’t understand. That’s when she started a fight with him and left him in his own kitchen with a knife in him, leaving him to bleed to death. His friends found him and rushed him to the hospital, but his condition was very severe so they did not think he would make it alive. A couple days later he recovered fully which was not expected from anyone but he came back in good health.

5 years later he returned home to India but would go back to Burma to run his business when a war broke out. The people there were fleeing back to India but he and his friends decided to seek shelter and hide out to protect themselves from the bombing and riots. They all survived the attacks and had gone back to India to avoid being arrested in the country. He built a house and settled down for the last time with his wife and kids so he could finally be in peace. 

My great grandfather was a fighter. He was very strong and had a good heart with good intentions for everyone. I’ve never heard the details of this story but he was an amazing role model for my grandma, my dad, and now my brother and I. He was a leader and fought everyday of his life to make a great story. This story ended on November 3rd, 1979.